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Long, Hot Summer ‘64; Program Five

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Program focuses on current events in Vicksburg, Mississippi and St. Augustine, FL:

Paul Cowan reports from Vicksburg, MS on the Mississippi Summer Project and the work of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) the volunteer group heading up the effort. Cowan reports on the three main focuses of COFO's work 1) voter registration 2) community center project teaching the arts and 3) Freedom School instructing 13 to 20 year olds in core curriculum studies. Initial community response to COFO's efforts seem to be positive.

In the second segment, Ted Mascott interviews, by phone, Hosea Williams of the SCLC on recent events in St. Augustine, FL. Williams reports that integration efforts at nearly all St. Augustine restaurants and hotels has been successful despite an increased presence of the KKK. He also notes that national press coverage has substantially diminished in town.

Ted Mascott interviews Mr. Eubanks (a black man), whose cousin was severely beaten by a group of whites. Eubanks details the attack and that nine men were arrested and charged with attempted murder.

Fourth segment is Ted Mascott interview of Southern Florida University Professor of History, Charles Arnade, discussing the white power structure in St. Augustine and how it has been the root causation of racial problems in the city. The newly appointed bi-racial commission is also discussed.

Ted Mascott reads from a 7/10/1964 Time magazine article, "Covering St. Augustine" which is highly critical of the local St. Augustine newspapers lack of coverage of the issue.

Part II of the 6/18/1964 interview of Barbara Actermann by Barbara Miller, part I of which aired the prior week. Actermann is the wife of a white history professor at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi.

Program closes with Ted Mascott reading a group of letters to the editor from the Clarion Ledger, the largest newspaper in Mississippi, to gauge public sentiment toward the Mississippi Summer Project.